12 Facts About Conrad Elvehjem

Conrad Arnold Elvehjem was internationally known as an American biochemist in nutrition.

Conrad Elvehjem, the son of Norwegian emigrants to Wisconsin, was born in McFarland, Wisconsin.

Conrad Elvehjem progressed through the secondary schools and the University of Wisconsin, where he received his PhD in 1927 with mentor E B Hart for his studies of the importance of copper in iron-deficiency anemia.

Conrad Elvehjem became chairman of the biochemistry department in 1944 and dean of the graduate school in 1946, at 45 years of age.

Conrad Elvehjem served as dean of the graduate school until he became the university's 13th president in 1958.

Conrad Elvehjem contributed greatly to the identification of vitamin B complex and was co-author of more than 780 scientific papers on biochemistry and nutrition.

Conrad Elvehjem commented frequently on nutrition as it affects both scientist and layman.

Elvehjem met his wife Constance W Elvehjem when she was an undergraduate at UW Madison.

Conrad Elvehjem died in 1999 at the age of 94 after many years supporting the museum and the Madison community.

Conrad Elvehjem was stricken with a heart attack at his desk on the morning of July 27,1962, at the age of sixty-one and died within the hour.

Conrad Elvehjem's name appears on university awards, buildings, a town park, and a local elementary school in Madison, Wisconsin, another in Mc Farland, and a neighbourhood on the South-East Side of Madison nearby and its associated neighbourhood association.

Conrad Elvehjem's name was formerly on the Elvehjem Art Center, until the museum received a $20 million donation from Simona and Jerome A Chazen, and renamed itself the Chazen Museum of Art.